You’ve just spent lots of money on a stunning diamond engagement ring, diamond eternity ring or wedding band. And you want to insure it against theft, accidental damage or loss. Here are some useful details about how the whole insurance thing works.
Insurance is an excellent move if you suspect your jewellery may be worth more than you think, you’ve been given jewellery you don’t know much about, your home isn’t particularly secure or you prefer showing off your expensive jewels, wearing them in all their glory rather than hiding them in a safe or putting them in the bank.
The thing is, insurance isn’t exactly easy to understand. The language insurance companies use is almost always about as far from plain English as it gets, full of dense gobbledegook and insurance speak. To help you get it right and protect your precious diamond items, here’s our plain language guide to jewellery insurance.
Guide to insuring diamond jewellery
Most good jewellers will be delighted to value your jewellery. Your insurer can also help with advice. It’s always a good idea, since the values of gold and precious stones do vary over time, and you don’t want to either under-insure your valuables or pay too much to insure something that isn’t worth as much as it’s insured for.
Most home insurance policies cover personal items like jewellery as standard. But they have claim limits for individual items and you can only insure them up to a restricted amount.
Most standard home insurance policies apply a single item claim limit for any one piece of jewellery, usually anything from £1000 to £2000. Which isn’t a lot when you’re talking diamond jewellery.
How do you know what limits your policy has? Check the policy document or, if you can’t make any sense of it, call them and ask.
If you have jewellery worth more than the policy limits, you won’t be able to claim their full value unless you specifically tell the insurer about the items.
If you’re fortunate enough to have masses of good jewellery, it might be better to take out a specialist Jewellery Insurance policy, one that covers all your precious items in one go. It depends on their value. Some insurers even provide a large sum of something like £20,000 ‘instant’ cover under their specialist jewellery policy.
Insuring diamond jewellery in the home
Under an ordinary, everyday home insurance policy your diamond rings, diamond earrings and so on ought to be covered automatically 
although, as we’ve mentioned, if they’re very valuable they might need to be insured separately. Some home insurers will quote separately if you have expensive jewels to insure. Others may ask you to insure particularly expensive items under another policy, specifically excluding them from your home insurance.
The best insurers include a generous amount for jewellery in their home insurance. Take Hiscox, who say:
“Our contents insurance policy includes cover for valuable items such as jewellery and watches, along with engagement rings and diamonds under the valuables section. There is no need to specify individual items, pairs or sets if they are valued under £15,000. Your precious items will be covered for theft or accidental loss or damage whether it happens at home or outside of the home (well, you won’t want to hide your jewellery away).
There is no need to take out separate jewellery insurance when our home contents policy does it all. And we’ll automatically cover new items you have bought or that unexpected gift for up to sixty days without affecting your premium.”
If anything you own is worth more than your insurer’s limit you might need to get a special quote and list the item separately. Or you may not – there are plenty of policy choices out there. Direct Line, for example, offers different levels of contents insurance, depending on how much your jewellery collection is worth. And you can include your jewellery if it’s worth more. You just have to specify the extra-valuable pieces individually when you buy the policy.
If you need more than £20,000 of jewellery cover, you can buy specialist ‘premium’ insurance where there’s no need to specify any item unless it’s valued at more than £10,000.
The best policies insure newly-acquired jewellery automatically for up to 60 days, or for longer if you pay an extra premium. This means you don’t have to get it valued before they’ll cover it.
If essential repairs mean your beautiful diamond ring, diamond earrings or whatever are worth less than they were before they damage occurred, a good quality policy will compensate you for the loss in value.
Insuring diamond jewellery outside the home
The best jewellery insurance policies cover your precious jewellery outside the home as well as inside, on a temporary basis. You can usually buy away-from-home cover for a small sum as an ‘add on’ to your standard policy if it doesn’t already include it. But there’s usually a limit. Some policies, for example, provide up to 60 days’ worldwide cover per year for items outside the home, other insurers include less.
It’s also good to remember that travel insurance almost always comes with a component that covers precious items like jewellery and watches outside the home.
What about matching wedding and engagement ring sets?
Most home insurers won’t cover matching sets as standard. If you 
lose or damage one half of the set, or it’s stolen, you can only claim for the missing or damaged half. Having said that, if you want your engagement and wedding ring set covered, many insurance companies will do so for an extra charge.
Diamond earrings are different – if you lose one earring most insurers will replace the pair.
If in doubt, ask an insurance broker
We’ve done our best to put things as simply as possible, but if you’re still confused the best thing to do is go and see an insurance broker in person. It makes much more sense than trying to buy insurance online when you don’t really know what you’re doing and the small print is nothing short of nonsensical.
Your best bet is to find an independent broker who has access to the entire market and can track down the best possible protection for your jewels, your circumstances and your budget. They’ll also be able to explain everything to you in language you understand. Which is worth its weight in gold!